Work is Accidentally Mis-Using Email

By copying the contents of an email regarding a co-worker's upcoming retirement party into a my Lotus Notes calendar, I thought it would be the easiest way to keep track of the details - when the party is, the location of the country club, directions to the place, etc.

I clicked the "Mark Private" box so that these details would only appear on my Lotus Notes calendar and not be visible for the employees entire Division to see.

Little did I know that when I clicked the "Save and Send Invitations" button what would happen. I fully expected to save this meeting - but only for me.

Instead, what actually happened was far worse.

By using the "Copy Into New" function, Lotus Notes automatically copied every recipient of the original email into the "Required" to attend field in my calendar entry.

That's right - every person in my Division was now invited to the meeting I wanted to keep private. Good thing this was only a reminder of a retirement party and not something far worse.

I clicked save and then the fun began. Before I could even navigate back to my inbox, it was nearly filled with "Out of Office" messages. And then my co-workers started accepting and declining my invite.

Unbelievable!

I was so embarrassed. So let this be a lesson to you - check every field before proceeding.